The Left Path
by WWKC121
Summary: Finn and Flame Princess had remarkably similar circumstances surrounding their childhood. Both abandoned by their parents, one was adopted by Joshua the Dog and the other returned to imprisonment in a lantern. But what if the roles had been switched? What if Joshua the Dog didn't find Finn, but found Flame Princess instead? I don't own adventure time.
1. An Unusual Beginning

Flame King ran through the portal, breathing loudly. He had escaped from his daughter's lamp by convincing the oaf, now his daughter's trusted assistant, Cinnamon Bun that he needed to take a shower. The idiot was stupid enough to believe that a fire elemental would ever need to take a shower, which, of course, would be the end of that fire elemental. He jumped across the floating rocks towards the large cube as his daughter and the goody-two shoes Finn chased after him.

"Flame King, get away from the time room!" The puny hero yelled, leaping over the rock behind him.

He had heard of the time room about a year ago from a snail that showed up at the Annual Evil Convention. Apparently, there was an all-powerful being who would grant wished who resided in that room. After this, he would be rid of Finn the Human for eternity. He leaped through the door, jumping down to stand in front of the being, who appeared to be painted on the walls.

"Hello! I'm Pris-" The being attempted to introduce itself.

"No time! I wish…"

"Dude, you know there's a trick to-"

"that Finn the Human…"

"Dude-"

"was never found by Joshua the Dog." Flame King finished his sentence and disappeared.

"I tried to warn him that these things never turn out quite how you expect." Prismo said, looking towards Flame Princess, who had just appeared in the entrance.

"Where's Finn? And where is my father?"

"Did Finn make it inside after you?"

"Er…yeah. And then he just disappeared." Flame Princess looked confused.

"He wasn't in the safety of the time room when your father made his wish. They are both now in the alternate universe."

"Alternate universe!" She looked back at the now closed portal she had entered through. "Dang. I wish-"

"Oh no! Wait wait wait-" Prismo started waving his arms.

"that I could"

"NOOO!" Prismo screamed.

"follow them somehow." Flame Princess finished her sentence and looked confusedly at Prismo. "What are you making so much noise for?"

"Too late." Prismo replied as Flame Princess disappeared.

Joshua the Dog walked along the path on one of his every-weekend walks with his wife, Margaret. Tree Trunks was babysitting Jake today and Jermaine was now old enough to stay at home alone, so he would have the entire day for himself. Jake was 8 magical dog months old now, and was already stretching everywhere after he rolled in that mud puddle. Joshua still couldn't believe something as mundane as a mud puddle would be magical, but the proof was there. He'd been busy the past week helping the aging hero Billy finish his retirement to his cave, which had been pretty hectic due to the sheer number of magical artifacts Billy owned. But today, he would just be by himself and able to relax. The two dogs came to a fork in the path. They normally chose the right one, as it was faster, but Joshua felt like mixing it up today.

"What do you think, Margaret? Should we take the left one today?"

"Sure, Joshua. I'm up for some variety."

The two continued walking down the path. The forest was especially beautiful today, and Joshua enjoyed the sweet smell of the pinecones, the trees, the smoke…wait! Smoke?

"Fire! He ran forwards, seeing a raging inferno before him on the path. He scooped some water from a nearby pool into the fire a couple times, then threw on some sand. The crackling of the fire faded and was replaced by…a crying baby? In the center of the charred area, a small fire elemental girl was lying on the ground. Joshua stepped towards the now cool clearing, looking at the forehead of the baby and noting the gem. This wasn't an ordinary fire elemental. She was royalty, probably the princess of the kingdom. Joshua had heard rumors that the Flame King abandoned his heirs if they were too powerful. That must have been what had happened with the baby. He carefully picked up the baby, wincing as she burned him slightly and looked towards Margaret.

"I think this baby needs some love and kisses Margaret. Let's take her home."

And so the two headed back along the path. On the other fork, a human baby cried, still yet to be found.

Hey! I'm cutting off the chapter there (I know, pretty short), but I'll probably update again soon, maybe this weekend even. Do you like it? Please read and review.


	2. The Enchiridion

Hey guys!

I'm so glad you liked the first chapter of the story! I know it was short, so I'm making up for it by posting 2 chapters in one weekend! To the people who were asking about Finn, he will show up, but I can't tell you what his alignment and all that will be. No sense ruining the surprise. Also, as a side not, this takes place when Flame Princess is about 12, like how old Finn is in the original short.

* * *

Flame Princess awoke to the sound of the telephone. She looked up at the ceiling, confused. She had just had the strangest dream. She had dreamt about the Fire Kingdom, but she didn't really remember what was happening in the dream, only she had felt cold and lonely, and…betrayed? She wasn't sure as to why, but she felt like this was more real than the average nightmare. She stood up, shaking off the strange feeling of living in the tree house. She had lived there for 2 years now, why was she suddenly feeling weird now? She sat up on the fireproof bed. Someone had answered the phone, as it had suddenly stopped ringing.

"Jake?" The magical dog and her adopted brother stretched into her bedroom, holding the phone.

"Yeah. Uh-huh. Yep. We can do that." Jake agreed with whoever was on the phone, then put a finger to his mouth.

"Shh! Yeah. Okay. Bye!" Jake hung up, then turned to her. "Princess Bubblegum's been kidnapped by some guy named the Ice King."

"Have I met Princess Bubblegum yet?" Flame Princess asked. The name sounded familiar.

"Yeah, she's an old family friend. She came over when you were three for dinner once, before that monster got mom and dad."

"Yeah." Flame Princess sighed thinking of her adopted mother and father. They had been so kind to her, taking her in after they found her in the forest, abandoned by her true father. They had even helped her to control her flames, so she now could touch things without burning them. If they hadn't raised her she probably would have ended up destructive and evil, but they taught her how to use her powers for good. She had decided from as soon as she could speak that she'd spend her life helping others like Joshua and Margaret had helped her.

"Well, shall we go help the Princess?" Jake interrupted her thoughts.

"Yeah!" Flame Princess said, more excited.

"Hey, FP, what time is it?"

"It's Adventure Time!" Flame Princess drew her golden sword and jumped onto Jake's back as the two ran off towards the Ice Kingdom.

* * *

The two came up to the Ice Kingdom and looked towards the Ice King's mountain, which stood near the center of the Kingdom. Flame Princess shivered and increased the heat of her flames to melt some of the snow.

"Do you see an entrance?" She said, looking towards the castle. Jake pulled out a pair of binoculars.

"Over there!" He pointed towards a hole in the large mountain which looked rather comically like a nose.

"Pass me the boots." Jake handed her the fireproof boots they used whenever she was around water.

"And I'll get my booties!" Jake put on his four booties, laughing.

"I'm going for it!" Flame Princess jetted over the icy ground towards the triangular hole. She flew through it, doing a flip, before raising her golden sword in one hand and a fireball in the other.

"Ice King, why are you stealing princesses?"

Ice King turned around from looking at a cage, which had a pink-colored woman who must have been Princess Bubblegum.

"What? A princess? Who came to me?"

"I'm no princess Ice King. I'm a hero!"

"A hero? You will never defeat me!" The Ice King raised both hands, and blue lightning flickered around each of them.

"You wanna bet?" Flame Princess raised her hands and threw a fireball at his crown, knocking it off.

"No! My powers!" Ice King fell to his knees. Flame Princess pushed him aside and melted the bars to the cage.

"Thank you for saving me, brave hero. What is your name?" Princess Bubblegum stepped through the bars.

"I'm Flame Princess, but my friends call me FP, because I'm not really a princess. My father left me to die after I was born."

"Oh, you must be the Princess of the Fire Kingdom. I heard about your father abandoning you."

"Yep. But now I'm just a hero."

Jake stretched through the entrance.

"FP, you got everything under control here?"

"Yep. Where've you been?"

"I've been hanging out with Princess Bubblegum's Rainicorn." The Rainicorn flew in after him.

"Well, I'll see you later, FP, Jake." Princess Bubblegum stepped onto the Rainicorn's back.

"Bye!" The Rainicorn and the princess flew away.

"Hey Jake, you seemed to be on pretty good terms with that Rainicorn, eh?" FP teased, smiling.

"What? No! Well, kind of. Anyway, she's named Lady." Jake replied, flustered.

"Okay, dude. What time is it?"

"It's adventure time!"

* * *

-2 weeks later-

The Candy Kingdom was a pretty cool place, Flame Princess decided. They had visited three times after rescuing Princess Bubblegum, and had become relatively good friends with her. The visits were always full of fun and partying, as she was doing now. The candy citizens were cool, but they sometimes were not the smartest. This often lead to some dangerous situations, as was happening now. The goo monster had absorbed half the city after it followed a candy citizen home.

"Eat this, goo monster!" She sliced it with her sword, then watched as the piece she sliced off reattached itself.

"Dang." She threw a fireball at it, causing an area of the monster to evaporate. The monster oozed down, absorbing her into it.

"Rrrg!" She switched to her elemental form and began growing, evaporating the monster from the inside out. Meanwhile, she spotted Jake attempting to get out of the grasp of its absorption.

"Hiyah!" She let out a final burst of flame, causing the goo monster to ignite and disintegrate. FP breathed heavily for a second, putting her hands on her knees. That had taken a lot out of her.

"FP!" Princess Bubblegum called. "I have to show you something."

"Coming, Princess." She stood up and walked towards the Princess. Princess Bubblegum stood next to an open passageway into the castle.

"In here." Flame Princess followed her in, closing the passage after her. Princess Bubblegum pulled out a pink sphere.

"Wow! A magical sphere?"

"No, look at what's inside the sphere." Flame Princess looked closer. A book was displayed in the center of the sphere.

"This is the Enchiridion, the hero's handbook. I thought you might want to find it. It's on Mount Cragdor, guarded by a manly minotaur."

Flame Princess sighed inwardly. Why was it always a manly this and a manly that? The society of Ooo apparently did not think it was possible for a girl to be a hero. She was excited about the book, though. It looked incredibly cool.

"I've got to get that book." FP flew out the window.

"Jake?"

"Yes?"

"We're going on an adventure!"

(AN: I'm not going to go through the start, as it pretty much is going to be the same thing as the episode. Don't worry, it'll diverge more from the episodes, as the story gets longer. This starts right after the gnomes come in.)

"No! Stop killing old women!" Flame Princess's switched into her elemental form in rage. The gnomes quailed in fear.

"Go back to the lava!" She stretched out a fiery hand, sweeping them back into the lava. She then shrunk into her normal self and crouched, resting her head on her knees.

"I'm not good. I'm evil. Those gnomes killed old ladies because of me."

"No you aren't. That was a heroic test. Don't be fooled by those gnomes and there illusions."

"Illusions?"

"Sure! What would an old lady do around here?"

"Yeah! Illusions. Thanks Jake, you really know how to make me feel better."

A giant pink hand reached down and grabbed Jake.

"Jake!" The owner of the pink hand, a giant, was holding Jake.

"I'm going to eat your friend!"

"Arrgh! I'm going to burn you alive!" Flame Princess grew to the height of the giant, raising huge fireballs on each of her hands.

"Uh oh!" The giant yelled as she cast the fireballs at him. He was knocked over by a huge explosion, and Jake was thrown into the air. Flame Princess shifted out of her elemental form and jetted over to him, grabbing him in midair. They flew and landed on top of the mountain.

"Thanks for saving me, FP."

"You're welcome, dude."

"Hey, I think the book is in this room!" Jake walked into a long hall, with FP following him. A cloaked figure appeared from the darkness.

"Hello heroes-to-be. To claim the book you must complete one final test. Enter my brain-world."

The world dissolved into a blank gray room.

"To complete this final test, slay this beast." A large creature appeared, which was really gross and kind of freaky.

"Is it evil?"

"Yes! It is completely and utterly evil. Now slay it!"

"Sure!" Flame Princess jumped towards it, dodging one of its arms and throwing a fireball. The creature exploded.

"Okay…and now for your final, final test, kill this ant."

"Er…why? Ants aren't evil. And this one is kind of cute. She kneeled down, looking at the ant. Aww! It's sooooo cute!" The ant began dancing.

"They don't pay me enough for this job." The cloaked figure sighed. "Enough! Kill the ant or you won't get the book!"

"No."

"KILL THE ANT!"

"Nope. I don't really feel like it." Flame Princess stood up. "You know, you really should get a remodeler in here. It feels kind of like it's blank and limitless gray. It needs some care."

"Kill the ant, you little boy!"

"Ok, let's get one thing straight. First, no one calls me little. And second, I am NOT a boy." Flame Princess replied, her eyes blazing (quite literally).

"You evil little girl!"

"And…he just went too far." She ran forwards, blazing in anger.

"I won't kill the ant!" The cloaked figure's brain-world dissolved, and she reappeared in the real world. In front of her the cloak sat upon the ground.

"Er…what happened?"

"You stood still for about three minutes and started mumbling about interior decoration, and then you went and kicked the cloak guy…well…er…"

"I kicked him THERE?"

"Yeah, he looked pretty bad too, completely dissolved into ash…"

"Oh. Err." There was a small, awkward silence.

"Hello!" Key-per walked around the corner, wearing what appeared to be a devil costume.

"Another monster!" Jake stretched larger. "I'll take this one FP."

"Wait! That's Key-per!"

"What? Oh. Why are you wearing a devil costume?"

"These are my pajamas." Key-per said, seemingly upset.

"Hey! I'm Mannish Man the Minotaur!" A minotaur came through the doorway. "You've completed the quest!"

"You're the manly minotaur?" FP said a little skeptically. It wasn't that she didn't believe him, but this was still feeling kind of ridiculous.

"Heck yeah!" The minotaur flexed his arms, which were muscular to the point of absurdity.

"Yeah…er…can I see the book?

"Of course! And Key-per made spaghetti!"

"Awesome!" Spaghetti was Flame Princess's favorite food.

"And…." The Minotaur made a show of presenting the book. "Here it is! The Enchiridion or the Hero's Handbook!"

"Aw yeah! Jake, what time is it?"

"It's Adventure Time!"

Did you like it? Hate it? Be completely ambivalent? I have no idea, so why don't you tell me? Also, the rest of the fic should follow a slightly different storyline than the main series. Don't worry, it won't just be Flame Princess doing everything Finn does. A side note, it may seem like Flame Princess's wish in the first chapter was inconsequential. Don't be too sure of that. Finally, feel free to guess who'll find Finn and what he'll be like. If someone guesses correctly, then I'll try to update before next weekend. (and that's not just a ploy to get reviews, you can PM me if you don't want to review.)


	3. Melting Ice part 1

I'm back with another chapter! How are you guys? Still liking the story? No one's guessed correctly about Finn yet. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. My summary says that the cover is the property of adventure time, and yet I have no cover! I don't even know why I wrote it. But anyway, if anyone would like to make cover art, that would be completely and totally amazing and mathematical! I also forgot this part:

What time is it?

Disclaimer time! Adventure Time is not the property of the author nor are any other ideas, words, or images that may appear in the story.

Okay, that was kind of weird. So on to the story!

"What's wrong PB?" The Princess had called FP half an hour ago. PB had only said that it was urgent, so Flame Princess had finished up her breakfast of charcoal and walked over. Jake was busy spending time with Lady Rainicorn and had left earlier that morning, so it had taken her longer than usual to traverse the short distance to the Candy Kingdom.

"The Ice King has been up to his old tricks again."

"What did he do this time?"

"He stole my new experimental candy creation serum. If it gets into the wrong hands, it could be deadly. I need you to go and retrieve it from his Ice Castle."

"OK! What does it look like?"

"It's a pink flask about as tall as a normal glass." PB motioned with her hands, showing the dimensions of the flask. "Be careful, it could be dangerous without Jake for backup."

"I got it, PB. Ice King's never defeated me."

"Great! Thanks so much."

"No problem, Princess." And with that, Flame Princess jumped out of the window and flew off.

* * *

The Ice King had some really bad ideas about what to make your kingdom be like, Flame Princess decided. If it wasn't the freezing cold or the ugly interior decoration, it was the fact that almost everything was made of ice. The mountains, the hills, the buildings, all were freezing cold and icy. The only thing that was going for the Ice Kingdom were the penguins. They were just adorable! Their only downside was their smell, but Flame Princess was sure they wouldn't smell so much if it wasn't for the Ice King's awful hygiene. Truly, the Ice Kingdom was one of her least favorite places in the world, save for possibly the Fire Kingdom. She had only visited the Fire Kingdom once, with Joshua and Margaret, and remembered having an awful time. Everything was on fire, and whenever she went there she felt like her worse, angry, unheroic side. She couldn't imagine what it would have been like to live there, had her father not abandoned her. Oh, her Father, her real father, how she hated him. When they had met, the Flame King had asked if she was evil. After replying that she was a hero, and super good, Flame King had become enraged and almost killed Jermaine, who's flame shield was wearing off. She had only met one nice fire elemental, Flambo. Flambo had given them flame shields and encouraged them to visit the Flame King, but was appalled at the Flame King's actions. He had visited occasionally since. Flame Princess shook herself out of her introspection, realizing she had been staring at the wall of the Ice Castle for a couple minutes. She crept around the corner, staring down an icy hallway with a series of three doors. Sliding along the wall, she peered into the first door. It was some sort of bathroom, although it looked awful because of all the ice. She gave it a quick look-over, confirming the flask wasn't there, and continued down the hall. The second door was locked, and she decided she would come back later. She could just burn it down if required. She stepped and looked around the corner…

"Who are you, and what're you doing here?" An angry voice exclaimed in surprise.

She froze, which was ironic considering she was in the Ice Kingdom, and stood completely still. The voice had come from behind her, and the first thing she learned about adventuring was that things behind you were ten times as dangerous as those in front. You didn't know what they are, and you couldn't attack them. She only had one option, to try to reason with this mysterious person.

"I'm Flame Princess the Hero. I'm trying to retrieve a stolen object from the Ice King." Flame Princess replied neutrally, her back still to the mysterious voice.

"A Princess?"

Oops. Of course anyone in the Ice Kingdom would share Ice Kings weird obsessions. "A Princess came into the castle, into our domain! My father will be so pleased to hear about this! I shall capture you and take you to him!" The voice said manically.

"What?! No!" She spun around, fists blazing, switching to her elemental form. She quickly evaluated the situation. Icy environment would put her at a disadvantage, as well as the fact that she was trapped at the end of the corridor. Her eyes fell on her opponent, this so called son of the Ice King...and she almost collapsed in shock. A boy, in blue clothes and a bear cap, with large blue eyes and a wisp of blond hair coming from under his cap, stood there. A golden crown, similar to that of the Ice King, but with only one gem, sat upon his cap. His hands were raised, a blue nimbus flickering around each.

"Finn…" Flame Princess whispered. She never had seen the boy before, but she felt a thousand emotions rising up inside her at the mere sight of him. Anger, happiness, betrayal, trust, and…no, she couldn't be feeling that. She had only known him for the past minute! So why did she feel this way?

"Lady, if you don't come with me now, I'll have to freeze you and carry you, and I don't think you'd like that."

ENOUGH! He was an enemy, and must be defeated. She would get rid of him, and she would never feel this way again. With grim determination, she cast a fireball at his face. The fireball flew towards him, and his face changed from confusion to fear. She watched as he ducked, and the fireball knocked his crown off. The boy collapsed to the ground, his hair retracting into his hat and his eyes shrinking from the huge blue ones he had before. Her emotions took control of her again, and she ran towards him, picking up his head.

"Ohmyglob! Are you OK? I'm so sorry!" She exclaimed, her emotional side overcoming her logic and rationality. Of course he wasn't all right, you idiot! You nearly killed him! This caused her more emotions than anything else. She began crying tears of lava. The boy-no, Finn, she might not know him but she felt sure that was his name-awakened, coughing slightly.

"Did I do something cool while I was blacked out?" He asked.

Flame Princess felt a strange sense of déjà vu, and a memory flashed through her head.

_Finn was lying on a strange metal suit, and water fell from his eyes. She shrunk to examine him, down to her normal form._

"_Did I do something cool while I was blacked out?"_

The emotions became to much for her, and fell into the darkness, collapsing. Her final thought was, _Oh, dang. The floor is made of ice. This is going to hurt._

* * *

Flame Princess awakened. She was lying on a small bed in an icy room. The room was sparsely decorated, with only a couple pictures, each of the Ice King or a penguin. A table sat in the center of the room, with two chairs. Luckily for her, most of the room wasn't made of ice, only the walls and ceiling. The floor was covered by a green carpet, and a green backpack hung on a hook near the door.

"Hello?" She called, looking around the room.

"Oh! You're awake!" The boy walked through the door, smiling. He wasn't wearing the crown, it appeared to be on the dresser behind him.

"How long was I out?"

"About two hours. I had to stop the Ice King from coming down here. He almost made me put on the crown."

Flame Princess winced. From her experience with the Ice King, the crown would take over your mind, and, although she knew very little about Finn, she knew she didn't want him to get hurt. "What happened to your arms?" Flame Princess said, noticing the reddened skin there.

"Oh! Er…your fire burnt them when I carried you in here."

Flame Princess quickly dimmed her flames, realizing she was perilously close to burning his bed as well.

"I'm so sorry! I must have stopped dampening it when I blacked out…"

"It's fine! I was a bit confused however, how did you know my name?"

"I…I'm not sure. I'm very confused about all of this." Flame Princess replied, feeling her emotions welling up inside her again. She had to leave before her emotions took over again. "I-I have to go!" She stood up, running towards the door. Finn jumped in front of her.

"Wait! No, don't go! I want to chat it up with you! Besides, Ice King is in the castle, and if he finds you here, I'll never see you again!"

FP stopped and sat down, putting her head on her knees. A lava tear fell from her eye. Finn put his arm around her.

"It's OK. Nothing's wrong, it'll turn out all right."

"Thanks, Finn. You're a great friend." Flame Princess sniffed. Her emotions were crazy, and they centered on Finn, but if she knew anything about emotions, she knew she would have to face them, and better to face them now than never.

AN: And Finn has finally appeared! What will happen next? Will Finn be taken over by the crown? Will Flame Princess discover why she feels all of those confusing emotions? Will Jake eat a sandwich? Please take a moment to review, as reviews are like small pieces of candy to me. Be back soon!


	4. Melting Ice Part 2

Hey! I'm back! I'll just get straight to writing today. (Oh yeah, I'm still looking for cover art, etc.)

I don't own Adventure Time.

"So what's the plan?" Finn asked, sitting in a chair as Flame Princess sat on his bed.

"Well, I need to go back to the tree house. I'll need your help to get out of here." Flame Princess replied, motioning to the icy walls.

Finn looked crestfallen. "Oh. Yeah."

"What is it, Finn?" Flame Princess noticed his anxiety, curious.

"I guess I've never had a friend before, and I'm feeling bad about you leaving…"

"You've never had a friend before?" Flame Princess blinked in surprise.

"No, Ice King keeps me locked up…" That sounds strangely familiar, thought Flame Princess.

"I guess I'm just sad that I found a friend and lost one so quickly."

Flame Princess felt a sudden burst of realization. "Silly!" She punched him lightly in the arm. "I'll still be your friend! I'm just going home! We can visit each other all the time!"

Finn rubbed his arm, brightening considerably. "Great! I guess I'm just a bit disappointed I have to stay here."

"What? You don't have to stay here! Come with me, you can stay with me and Jake until we can get you a house of your own!"

"Really? That's awesome!" He jumped up and pulled her into a hug, which she gladly returned. "Thanks so much." The hug went on a little longer than expected of friends, until both blushed and pulled away simultaneously.

"So how are we escaping the king?" Flame Princess asked.

"I have an idea." Finn replied. "But first let's pack my stuff."

"Oh. Right."

About ten minutes later, the two crept out of Finn's room. They walked down the hallway, crouching. Or at least Flame Princess was.

"Finn! You have to walk like this!" She motioned to him. "Adventurer style."

"Oh! Sorry." He crouched down, walking ahead of her.

"That's better!" She whispered. "Let's go!"

"Say, Finn, where did you get the crown?" FP asked curiously.

"Ice King made it using his powers. He took one of his crown's gems and embedded it in mine, after he found me alone in a forest."

"Huh."

They were almost to the exit when Ice King found them.

"What the heck? My son! And the Flame Princess!" Ice King exclaimed.

"I'm not your son!" Finn replied angrily.

"Fool! I'll destroy you!" Ice King held up his hands, lightning flickering.

"Let's get out of here Finn!" Flame Princess grabbed him, jetting out through the window and towards the tree house, to freedom.

"I'll get my revenge some day!"

As they flew towards the tree house, Flame Princess noticed the storm clouds forming. A drop of rain stung her shoulder.

"Uh oh!" She increased her speed; feeling drops of rain continuing to sting her body. As the deluge increased, she felt her powers failing. "We're going down!" She crashed through the door of the tree house and collapsed to the floor. Her last impression before she blacked out was that Jake would be really angry about the door.

Finn awoke to see FP collapsed next to him. His head was still fuzzy from where he hit it on a rafter. He carefully picked her up, and carried her throughout the house, looking for her bed. He found it on the second floor, up a ladder. He placed her into the bed, pulling the covers over her.

"Finn…so cold…" Flame Princess awoke, shaking slightly.

"What do you need?" Finn asked.

"Can you give me a hug?" FP replied, her eyes blinking.

Finn blushed, awkwardly sitting down and attempting to put his arm under her shoulder, but having trouble with that, placed one arm under her neck. She instinctively scooted up next to him, causing him to blush again. They lay there for a while, until Flame Princess appeared to have fallen asleep. Finn attempted to stand up, but during the time that they had been lying there, his arm had shifted to the point at which he was unable to remove it. He also had begun to lose feeling in the same arm. Resigning himself to not being able to move (which, a part of his brain that he was currently was attempting to suppress told him, was a good thing) and remained there, drifting off to sleep as well.

Flame Princess awoke to an incredibly high-pitched scream.

"AIEEE!" Jake stood at the foot of the bed. He dropped the bag of groceries he was carrying with a crash. She attempted to organize her thoughts in an attempt to figure out what was going on.

1: She was in her bed.

2: Jake was at the foot of the bed screaming.

Okay, those were not incredibly helpful. But she continued.

3: Finn was next to her, with one arm under her shoulders and the other lying to his side.

4: Uh oh…

5: She had asked Finn to hug her last night, and she had been in bed at the time.

6: Jake was really very angry.

"What do you think you are doing young lady? And who is this kid?" Jake screamed.

"Er… Let's see, his name is Finn, and the Ice King captured him. He's my friend."

"And why, exactly, is he in your bed?" Jake almost-screamed back at her, breathing heavily.

"I was really cold last night, because I was caught in a rainstorm. I asked him to give me a hug to warm me up, and I think I accidentally trapped his arm so he couldn't move."

"Hi…" Finn said, now awake.

Jake sighed. "FP, we need to talk about something." He took her by the arm and pulled her into the other room.

"Listen, in any romantic relationship there are tiers."

"Wait-what? This isn't romantic." Flame Princess replied, blushing.

"Mmm-hmm?" Jake said, raising an eyebrow.

Flame Princess blushed furiously.

"Any-whooo, there are tiers. First come hugging. But pretty soon, you'll be at tier 2, which is smoochin'." Jake stretched an arm out in a step pattern.

"It's not a romantic relationship!"

"Anyway, just take the natural course. Don't accelerate things."

"Wait, what's the last tier?"

"You stay away from that!" Besides, it shouldn't matter, if you're not in a romantic relationship…"

"I'm not!" Flame Princess protested, blushing again.

Did you like it? Sorry it's short. Anyway, the next chapter will be from FP's perspective, now that the introduction is over. I'll switch perspectives occasionally, but I'll try to warn you about it. I feel like I need a bit of variety.


	5. Princess Bubblegum

I'm back again with a special early update! Now let's get down to the story. (It's in Flame Princess's POV)

"So what do you want to do?" I asked Finn as he put down his small backpack.

"Hmm. Can you show me around Ooo? I've never seen anywhere except the Ice Castle and a couple surrounding areas."

"Yeah! That sounds great! We can start with the Candy Kingdom." I suggested. Princess Bubblegum was a good friend and I looked forward to having her meet Finn.

"The Candy Kingdom?"

"It's a kingdom entirely made of candy!" I clarified, although in retrospect 'Candy Kingdom' probably did essentially imply it was made of candy.

"That…sounds…AWESOME!"

"Great! Let's go!"

We arrived at the Candy Kingdom about 30 minutes later after the short walk out of the Grasslands. I had fun telling Finn about all the adventures I had had in the area.

"So who rules the Candy Kingdom?"

"Princess Bubblegum. She's one of my best friends and is super-sciency."

"Oh. Cool! Hey look, we're here!" As we walked through the streets, Candy People greeted me.

"Hey FP!" Princess Bubblegum rounded the corner. "Who's this?"

"This is my friend, Finn the Human." I replied. Finn remained awkwardly silent.

"Finn!" I hissed out the corner of my mouth. "Introduce yourself!"

"Oh! Er, yes. Hello! Good morning-er-evening…er, Salutations and good morrow…"

I facepalmed. What the heck was Finn doing and why was he so…inarticulate?

"Hello does fine. I am Princess Bubblegum, sovereign of the Candy Kingdom, but you can call be PB or whatevs. I don't really have any preference. Allow me to show you my laboratory!"

Phew! PB had salvaged the situation. We continued on into her laboratory. As the princess droned on about zanoids, I whispered to Finn.

"What were you doing?"

"I just couldn't speak properly temporarily!" Finn replied indignantly.

"Well, you embarrassed me. And talk quieter!"

"Why? It's not like she's going to hear me!"

"Well now we're both quietly yelling!"

The Princess turned back towards us. "-and that's why plantoid population must be kept at a minimum."

"Great!" I replied. "Now there's this thing that me and Finn need to go to."

"Wait? What? We don't have to do-"

"Shh!" I dragged him out of the castle by the arm before he could embarrass me (and himself) further.

I sat quietly in my room, thinking about life. Well, not really. I was thinking more about my friends. Well, even that's not really very specific. I was thinking about Finn. Although I had only known him for about 3 days, he was a great friend, and, as I had surmised from listening to a couple of the other princesses talking, I was getting to that age when I would start to…well, do what Jake talked about. What? NO! Not that. I mean the, well, um…like-like stuff. You know, when you go all stupid and you just want to play BMO with them? Yeah. That's it. Well anyway, I most certainly did not feel like that towards Finn. No sir. That would be just too uncomfortable with all that weird déjà vu stuff that was happening occasionally. I did not feel like that towards Finn.

As you may have noticed, I'm lying to myself. Whenever I saw him, I just felt so conflicted and also so happy and confused. I guess my feelings could be described as a cross between an irritated yell and a shout of excitement and happiness and would be the color of Finn's hair, all golden and awesome…wait what? Did I just think that? Anyway, back to what was actually happening. I was thinking about life, more specifically my friends, more specifically Finn, who I most certainly did not have feelings for. Certainly. And at this point, the eye of this hurricane of conflict happened to walk into the room.

"Hey FP!" Finn walked through the doorway and sat down across from the seat where I was sitting.

"Hey Finn."

"Listen, it was really great to meet PB. I'm glad that I can finally see all of Ooo!"

"Yeah. It was cool."

"Listen, I want to ask you something." I quickly had a discussion with myself, going something like this:

_Optimistic FP: "He's going to ask you out!"_

_Rational FP: "No, it's probably just something like what's for dinner, and all that stuff."_

_Pessimist FP: "No, more like he's finally decided to cause your life even more turmoil._

_Optimistic FP: "Stop being so negative, pessimist FP."_

_Meta FP: "Wait, you just referred to your pessimist section of your brain as existing, implying that you also know that you don't exist and are actually just a clever way for the author to make this story be a bit more funny. And the author just wrote that, so he in effect is examining one of his own characters consciousness's, which implies he knows of the existence of his own consciousness possibly merely being written by another author."_

_All other FPs: "Wait, what?"_

Back to reality:

"You're a girl, right?"

Okay, what kind of a question was that?

"Er. Yes. Last time I checked."

"So, there's this girl I like…"

_Optimistic FP: "I knew it! He's going to ask you out! Yay!"_

"Yes?" I replied. I felt suddenly warm. I mean, warmer than I normally do. Keep your cool, FP, even if you are a fire elemental.

"What should I do?"

Internally, I was incredibly pleased. After a bit of thought, I decided on how to word my reply. "Tell her how you feel."

_Optimistic FP: "Yes! Now he'll do it!"_

"Okay! Great! I'm going to go see PB."

_Optimistic FP: "Wait! What?"_

_Pessimist FP: "Told you I'm right. Always."_

_Optimistic FP: "But I thought he-"_

My external reaction was even angrier.

"WHAT?" My face transformed into its elemental form. "I'll kill you!"

"What? What'd I do wrong?" Finn looked up in confusion, backing away. A single tear fell from my eye.

"I thought you liked me! But you decided on the sciency princess instead. What's wrong with me?"

"Wait! No! FP! I like you! You're my best friend! I'm sorry I was so clueless to see that it would hurt you!"

"It doesn't matter!" I cried, turning away. I'm his best friend. How could such a nice statement feel so bad?

"Listen, FP, I need to tell you the truth. I had a crush on you, not PB. I just thought that you didn't like me that way, so I decided to try to move on. But I like you! I mean, I think I like-like you! I just want to sit on the couch and play BMO! I even wrote a song for you!"

"You…you wrote a song for me?" I sniffed, turning back to my normal form.

"Yeah! It's not very good though."

"No! Sing it! It…it would make me feel really good if you did."

"Okay, here goes:"

"_Flame Princess, I think you're rad_

_I just want to kiss you, hope it doesn't make you mad_

_Cause I think you're great_

_I want to be your mate_

_Or maybe go on a date_

_Cause it felt like there was piece of ice inside my body_

_There was a piece of ice inside my heart_

_It was like this piece of ice was gonna consume me_

_If I kept on waiting for this thing to start_

_But now I feel are warmed up inside_

_All warmed up inside_

_All warmed up insi-ii-idde._

And that's it for this chapter! See you later! I know it's short, but it's super early, so please read and review!


	6. Dad's Dungeon

Hey guys! I'm back! Before I begin this chapter, I'd like to direct you to Ooobserver (did I spell that correctly?), who reviewed last chapter, much to my extreme happiness, and is one of the fastest-rising authors around and also is writing an amazing FinnXFp fanfic, "The Citadel of Truth". He updates super-fast too. Let's all give him a hand! No, not literally. I mean clap. Actually, as you're probably in front of a computer right now, don't do that. You might knock it over, and then I have one less reader! Also, I've decided every update I'll spotlight a reviewer or other author's fan fiction!

"This sandwich is amazing!" Finn exclaimed in between bites. Jake had made one of his amazing sandwiches for Finn, who was currently eating it with great enthusiasm.

"Great! I'm glad you like it." I was sitting next to him, while Jake sat on the other chair on the other side of us. After the revelation about a week ago, Finn and I had become much closer.

"Say, FP, are you sparking or something?"

Huh? That had never happened before. I looked behind me and saw a set of sparkles glowing in the kitchen.

"Magical sparkly stuff! Let's follow it!" I leapt out of the chair and out the window, chasing the sparkles. They continued onto the roof, then sunk into the tree. I leapt through the leaves after it.

"Whoa! A holo message player!" I exclaimed, as Finn and Jake fell down behind me.

"Let's play it!" Jake said, sliding the disk into the slot. A pink hologram of a dog wearing a gray hat appeared.

"Dad!" I exclaimed simultaneously with Jake.

"Who?" Finn confusedly looked at the hologram.

"Hello Flame Princess and Jake." Dad said, "If you're seeing this prerecorded holo message, then I've passed on, and my spirit sparkles have guided you to this message player. You, see I've made a dungeon for you. Now FP, this part is for Jake only, so cover your ears. I reluctantly put my hands over my ears. Jake continued as he was, while Finn looked around confusedly, finally deciding to cover his ears. Being rather bored, I looked at the conversation. Jake and dad were talking rapidly. Dad suddenly picked up a baby Jake and me. The conversation continued. Finally, Jake yelled for me to take my hands off my ears.

"Okay kids! Now to find the dungeon, you must go to the dumb looking rock near the tree house."

We walked downstairs, and sure enough, there was a really dumb looking rock. I mean, dumb to the point of extreme dumbness. We slid the rock aside and hopped down.

"Oh boy, sandwiches!" Finn exclaimed, running forwards.

"Wait a second, Finn." Something was wrong here. "Didn't you have a sandwich this morning?"

"Yeah, so?" Finn replied, looking back towards me.

"Finn, I don't think those sandwiches are actual sandwiches at all…"

Sure enough, the sandwiches stirred, standing and turning into an immense sandwich monster. I quickly used my fire powers.

"Snakefire!" A set of fiery jets flew from my hands, striking the sandwich monster. The chamber rumbled, and we ran for the exit. We made it through just as the room collapsed.

"Phew! That was close." I panted, worn out from using my fire abilities.

"Hey look! Another holo-message player!" Jake exclaimed, placing the next disc in the slot.

"Hello! FP, cover your ears or go into another room or something."

I grumbled slightly but complied, as did Finn. We walked down the corridor and around the corner.

"I wonder what dad's talking to Jake about." I pondered, sitting down.

"I'm not sure." Finn replied. We were silent for about a minute.

"FP, I don't think I should be here." Finn broke the silence.

"What? Why?" I exclaimed in astonishment.

"This seems like something for you and Jake, not me. I guess I'm feeling left out."

"Well, you know what, I'm feeling rather left out as well. So we can be left out together!"

"Haha, yeah!"

We sat companionably for a little while.

"Hey look, a gauntlet." Finn picked up the metal glove, sliding it on to his hand.

"It won't protect you against much if you just have armor on your hand." I replied, laughing.

"I know one thing it'll help me do." Finn replied, grabbing my hand with the gauntleted one. I blushed nervously. "See, this way I can hold your hand without being burnt!" Aww. That was sweet. Sometimes, Finn just says these things and I just feel all warm and happy. I wonder whether he feels like that too?

We sat there holding hands for a while, until Jake walked up behind us.

"C'mon, lovebirds, dad finished his message." Me and Finn blushed and stood up. The three of us then continued walking.

"Hey look, it's a pair of paths." Jake exclaimed, walking ahead of us. I reached him and looked down the fork. On one side there was a strange, gross guy and on the other there was a flowery trap-thing.

"Which one should we choose?" I asked.

"Let's take the flower trap. That guy is gross." Jake replied.

"Aw man." The gross guy spoke.

"Hey chill out, guy. You just need to take a shower." Finn reassured him.

"Thanks!" The gross guy laughed. We continued down into the flower path.

"Hey FP?" Jake hesitantly said.

"Yeah? What?" I replied, distracted.

"Er… Dad said you're a whiny baby!" Jake yelled.

"What? Why would he say that?" I suddenly felt depressed. I slumped down slightly.

"Partake of the fruiiit…" A strange flower-girl thing whispered.

"….Because you are a whiny baby! A whiny, crying baby!" Jake continued.

"But I only cry when it's natural, like at funerals and stuff." I replied. Why was Jake being so mean all of a sudden? I felt awful. I felt a metal hand grab mine again. I looked up to see Finn.

"It's OK." He turned towards Jake. "Look, dude, I know you're FP's brother and all, but stop making her feel bad! No brother should do that! Now explain what you're doing."

"Listen, next time we get to a holotape, don't cover your ears, OK?" Jake replied. We then continued, and I felt slightly less disheartened. But why would dad or Jake say stuff like that? We climbed over a tall wall-like structure and proceeded to look over a huge room, full of various pieces of equipment.

"Maybe we should just turn back." I suggested. I was feeling too depressed to continue.

"What? No! We've got to continue and beat the dungeon!" Finn exclaimed. "C'mon!" He pushed me down the slope. As we slid down, I hit a bump and began rolling down. Finn followed after me. By the time I had reached the bottom, I was laughing from being so dizzy. I stood up, attempting to get my bearings, and was promptly knocked over by Finn, who had come barreling down the slope after me.

"Oof." I said, sitting up.

Finn sat up next to me. "I can't see!" he screamed, panicking.

"Oh my glob!" I yelled. Then I realized his hat was on backwards. I began laughing.

"Why is it so funny that I'm blind?"

"You're not blind, your hat's on backwards!" I laughed.

"What? Oh!" He turned his hat back into the proper position. "Whoops!" We stood up as Jake stretched down next to us.

"Here's the holomessage:"

"Hey! FP, cover your ears. Jake, remember this dungeon is designed to make Flame Princess tougher. Make sure she feels really bad! I-" A pair of fingers popped out of the crack behind Joshua.

"Dad!" We ran into the crack behind the holomessage player. Me and Finn began looking around for the monster that had got dad, while Jake looked at some old holomessages. As I pondered what dad had said, I began to feel worse again. I sat down, putting my arms around my knees.

"Dad's right. I can't fight this monster. I'm dumb and weak and cowardly and all the other things dad said. I'm no hero."

"Not now you aren't." Finn replied frankly. Even Finn betrayed me! I felt even worse, but also…not just sad, angry. I stood up, eyes blazing. "What!?"

"The Flame Princess I know wouldn't stand around here sulking! C'mon! You can do it! You just need to realize you already are a hero, regardless of whatever anyone else says! Please! I need you to be the FP we need…the one I like…"

Yeah, if Finn says something like that again, I'd do pretty much anything. "OK!" I said. "Now let's get that monster!" I stood up.

"You might need that." Finn pointed towards an area of the room I had somehow missed. A crimson sword was impaled into the floor, held down by a set of chains.

"Dad's sword!" I exclaimed, running towards it with Finn following close behind. I grabbed it, pulling. The sword slid smoothly from the stone. I raised it over my head.

"Yeah!" Finn exclaimed from beside me.

"Thanks Finn. I couldn't have done it without you." I gave him a hug, smiling as he returned it. "And, since I won't be needing this anymore…" I pulled my old gold sword from it's sheath on my backpack.

"Wow! Cool! Thanks so much FP!" Finn accepted the sword happily.

"You're now a member of FP and Jake Adventuring Incorporated." I smiled. "Although I suppose we'll now have to change it to FP, Finn, and Jake Adventuring Incorporated."

Finn was speechless. Or maybe he was just staring at something over my shoulder and stuttering. "Muh-muh-monster!" He pointed behind me. I turned around to see a huge monster with the hands that had taken dad. I drew my sword, running towards him. The monster lashed out with one hand, swiping towards me. I turned into a streak of fire, dodging it, and continued on towards the monster's face. I landed in the lit spot of the monster's eye. The monster leaned towards me, attempting to eat me in its huge, many-tooth filled mouth. I could see it barreling towards me, a huge maw preparing to devour me. I raised my sword, pointing it towards the monster's eye. The eye slammed into the sword, and I braced myself, attempting to stop the inexorable fall of the eye. I spotted Finn, jumping towards me over one of the monster's legs. He landed beside me.

"C'mon!" He yelled over the roars of the monster. "You can do it!" I braced myself further, and pushing in a final arc, slung the monster over my shoulder, sending him into a chasm. The roars and laughs of the monster died away, replaced by silence.

"You did it!" Finn said, giving me a hug again.

"Hey guys. I think you should see this." Jake held up a holomessage player.

"Flame Princess, if you're seeing this prerecorded holomessage, then you've completed the dungeon I made for you. I'm proud of you, my daughter. You're going to do great things in life. I love you." The message closed off, then flickered on again. "Oh yeah, and Finn, you'll be a great son-in-law some day."

Author's note:

What? How did Joshua know Finn was there? Will there be a strange plot twist? Will Jake finally eat that sandwich I hinted at a few updates ago? Only time will tell! Review please, reviews are like candy to me.

Vale! (That's goodbye in Latin! I can speak a dead language!)


	7. The Lich

Hey guys! I'm back! Twice in a weekend! Well, for you today isn't a weekend, but I have today off for whatever reason. Maybe the world's ending and I don't know it. If that's the case, tell the zombies I said hi. I just couldn't bear having this on a cliffhanger, so I decided to update.

Oh, and your spotlight for this update is:

Wolfie-V's looking through the Ice, a cool (no pun intended) fanfiction which is about… hey, you know what? I'm not going to spoil it. Unfortunately, he/she has stopped writing it due to the sheer feels from Frost and Fire and the like. (WHY, FINN! WHY?). Also check out his/her other fanfiction, "Rising Bubbles" about P-Bub's childhood.

"What?" Finn exclaimed, stunned. "How did he-" He was cut off by the ringing of a telephone. I reached back into my backpack and pulled out the old phone.

"Hello?" I asked, wondering who was calling.

"FP! It's me, PB. You have to come immediately!"

"Okay, okay. Chill out. What's wrong?" I replied, nervous. Princess Bubblegum was normally calm and collected, not hysteric.

"No time! You must come immediately!" She hung up.

"Jake! Emergency! Let's get out of here!" Jake stretched to about 20 times his normal size as I jumped onto his back, pulling Finn behind me. I raised my hand and threw a fireball in the roof, breaking through. A cloud of debris crashed down to the floor, leaving a clear passage to the surface. Jake bounded up through the still-smoking hole. We emerged to the surface, coughing.

"Where to, FP?" Jake asked.

"Princess Bubblegum needs our help! To the Candy Kingdom!"

Jake began running towards the Kingdom, carrying us hundreds of feet with each stride.

"How in the world did he-" Finn asked from behind me.

"No time! The Candy Kingdom is in danger!" I replied.

"Guess this is my first adventure then." Finn smiled.

"Yep!" I replied, keeping my eyes focused on the Candy Kingdom rising over the horizon.

"Hey FP, what time is it?"

I couldn't help but smile. "Adventure Time!"

As the Candy Kingdom continued to become more visible, I noticed a strange, blackened hole in the tree.

"Hey Finn, do you see that?" I asked, pointing towards the hole.

"Yeah. I wonder what it is?" Jake leapt onto the walls of the Candy Kingdom, shrinking down to his normal size as me and Finn jumped off, next to a hysterical Princess Bubblegum.

"The Lich!" PB screamed.

"Wait, what?" I asked, not entirely sure who this "Lich" was.

"He's a force of extreme undead evil out to take over the world. You have to stop him! He's heading towards his well of power, trying to escape you two through a multidimensional portal!" The Princess jabbered, breathing heavily. "He escaped from his amber prison within my tree with the help of a snail!"

"But why is he running from us?" I asked. What could be so frightening about two normal, teenage heroes? I mean, we were heroes, but not like world-saving heroes. That was more of a Billy thing.

"The Lich at one point discovered an ancient archive full of prophesies, defeating their guardian, The Ancient Magi of Knowledge Giving. A prophecy predicted his downfall, saying only "frost and fire" working together would manage to defeat the Lich's evil. The Lich believes you, being Princess of Fire and Prince of Ice, to be the prophesized two who will defeat him. He is attempting to seek an alternate universe in which the two of you are not working together."

"We're on it, Princess." I replied determinedly. Fate of the world or not, I was going to stop this Lich guy.

"You'll need this." Princess Bubblegum handed me a strange, six fingered gauntlet. "The gauntlet of Billy is the only known weapon capable of stopping the Lich."

I slid it on to my hand, jumping on to Jake's back with Finn following close behind to track down the Lich. The trail of death the Lich had left was an easy guide for where we should go. It passed over some open plains, then into a lake. The Lich drifted across the center of the lake, heading towards the other shore. Jake leapt into the water, turning into a boat. Finn and I jumped on. However, Jake could only paddle so fast, and the Lich was quickly escaping. I formulated a plan.

"Here!" I handed the gauntlet to Finn, then turned around and shot my fire behind us, sending us flying across the surface. We quickly gained on the Lich, who, spotting us, began rising into the air, shooting a burst of green fire back at us.

"Use the gauntlet!" I yelled over the sound of the water and the green fire. Finn raised the gauntlet, shaking it around a bit, until a beam of light flew from it, dissipating the green fire. Finn then aimed the gauntlet at the Lich, barely missing him. The Lich was quickly rising out of sight though.

"Jake! Hang-glider mode!" I yelled, continuing to pour my fire behind us like a rocket engine. Jake stretched to form two large wings, and our boat quickly lifted off into the air, chasing after the Lich. After we no longer were touching the water, Jake stretched until he was entirely flying. Finn fired twice more at the Lich, missing the first time but shooting off his leg the second time. Unfortunately, the Lich shot green fire at his leg, causing it to grow back. As we came into striking distance, the Lich shot a pair of bursts of fire down, which Finn barely blocked with the gauntlet, sending himself rocketing straight up. Jake followed him as I put more and more power into propelling ourselves upwards. The air around us became cold and thin, and I suddenly was unable to shoot fire. I could feel oxygen deprivation setting in, causing me to turn blue. Finn and Jake appeared to be having trouble breathing as well. Finn, noticing my cold, blue exterior, grabbed my hand, pulling me closer to the little body heat he could provide. I tried to thank him, but for some reason no sound was carried in the cold, lifeless air. I took a second to look down, and saw the small continent that is Ooo, and the immense crater nearby it. The Lich, apparently reaching the full extent of his abilities as well, had begun falling back to the ground, passing us by as Jake followed him. We drew closer and closer to the surface, the Lich a couple hundred feet ahead of us. As we drew closer to him I spotted small amounts of fire flying off his front as he fell.

"Ow!" Jake yelled, which meant we were able to talk and breathe again at least. I noticed the fire surrounding Jake, and began drawing it into me, using its power to regain my heat. This also kept Jake safe from the burning flames. Soon enough, the flames stopped, but we continued careening towards the ground. I spotted the Lich land and step into a strange cave.

"Jake! Parachute!"

"Oh! Right!" Jake stretched into a parachute, dropping us gently onto the ground before landing safely next to us.

"Now let's get after that Lich!" We ran into the cave. A swarm of zombie minions attacked us, but with the gauntlet, my fire powers, and Jake's stretching ability, we quickly defeated them, leading us to a strange chamber. A pool of radioactive waste bubbled in the center, with the Lich standing at the other end, laughing wildly.

Meanwhile, back at the Candy Castle:

Princess Bubblegum had forgotten something. And that wasn't good, because whatever she had forgotten could injure Finn and FP. She rubbed her crown, attempting to thing. Her crown! It provided her with protection from the Lich's influences, but she had forgotten to give similar amulets to Flame Princess and Finn! Glob, she felt so stupid right now. She quickly grabbed the amulets and leapt onto the Morrow, heading to the only place she thought she might be able to get help.

Interlude over:

The Lich raised both hands, green flames crackling on each of them, turning, he shouted and incantation.

"_Aperi caulae trans mundis!" _A glowing portal appeared in front of him. He stepped through.

"Quick! After him!" I yelled, jumping through the portal, followed by Finn and Jake. A wave of light overtook my eyes, and we began speeding through a long tunnel. Hundreds of images flew by, some lasting longer than others.

_A broken city, flaming and ruined, while a small black-haired girl sat in a corner, crying. A man walked up, placing his arm around her, handing her a small stuffed animal._

_A tall humanoid stood, raising a sword, with red hair glistening in the sun, running towards a floating bear._

_A dog wielding a demon-blood sword picked up a baby flame princess, taking her into his arms._

_Myself and Finn, running after the Lich on Jake's back_

_A female version of Finn, fighting a female Ice King._

_The same man from before, a golden crown on his head, raising his arm's in a vortex of power, casting an icy shield around a falling bomb._

_Finn, sitting alone in featureless, blank room, sobbing._

_An older Finn, with a mechanical arm, standing with an arm around human version of me as a small, red haired girl played in the background with a young boy._

_A black haired girl with one arm, helping to build the Candy Kingdom, a white tiger by her side._

And so many more images, too many, I couldn't handle them, bursting, breaking, careening through my head, my head, it hurt so much and all the sound and smell and taste and feeling and-

There was nothing. And then the world came back, leaving me floating in a small, spherical room, with millions of gems embedded in each of the four walls, glistening with light.

And that's it for today! Did you like it? Hope you did! You may have noticed, I alluded to two of my favorite fanfictions right now in that portal scene, Tales of the Alternate Universe by SCIK1012 (You can't not have one of SCIK's stories on your favorites list, they're just too good! I always kind of wonder whether she pulls a J.K. Rowling on us and occasionally publishes using a different name) and The Citadel of Truth, which I mentioned in the last chapter.


	8. Palatium Iaculis

Hey! I'm back! Again, to the person who asked when the next chapter would be, I publish chapters every week, but past that, it depends on how I'm feeling and how much time I have. So occasionally I might update twice or three times a week, but the only thing you can count on is these weekend updates.

The story spotlight this week is on Riset36, who has been here since the start. He's making a story called "An Issue" which I won't spoil for you, but go and read it! That's what I do these spotlights for anyway!

And after a record-breaking number of reviews last chapter, I'd like to take a moment to thank readers and reviewers.

For my readers, I don't know who you are, and I can't tell whether you like this story or not, but I'll say thank you. Thank you for reading, all 2,359 of you.

For my reviewers, I've read your reviews, which have been almost unanimously positive, and have decided to finally respond to some of them personally. (I'm too lazy to normally, and I saw something about rules against it).

Death Sender: I'm glad you like the story. Did you like how it turned out with Finn?

Awesome Adventurer: Wow, you've been here from the start! Your reviews, as always supportive and occasionally "AWESOME! :D", have always been an inspiration to me. Thank you.

nightmaster000: You've been reading since the start as well, and have always had great insights, as well as finding a plot point I very nearly forgot about.

GMansell: I was wondering where Finn was as well, at that point. I started this story as a one-shot and decided to continue it with not much of a plan.

Riset36: You've had some amazing insights into where this all was going, and after I heard your hyooman idea, I almost changed my mind about Finn being found by the Ice King. Thank you!

GhostmanI: Although I've said others have been here from the start, you really have been here from the very start, beginning with my first story, (currently on hiatus), and have always been a great inspiration to me.

Wolfie-V: I'm glad you found my story as well! I wrote it because I was getting tired of the Fiolees, they're ok, but there are _way_ too many of them.

TheChubbyChibi: I was so glad to have another reviewer. Your review, although the first thing ever describing my writing as cute, has always made me feel better when I don't feel like writing. I just say to myself, "Someone thinks your writing is cute! Obviously you can do anything because of that."

Ooobserver: When you first reviewed, I felt elated. Someone whose story I was reading had reviewed my story! I suddenly felt like a writer, rather than a reader who was hopelessly flailing in a sea of writers far better than myself.

MAD- The Awesomeman: You may not have been here as long as some of the others, but your reviews have always made me feel like I was eating tiny pieces of candy: Incredibly happy and craving more.

The Madman001: I'm glad you think my story was interesting! I'm always looking forwards to the updates as well.

Shut Your Yams: I've always loved stories with Ice-king Finn as well! Thank you!

Anonymous reviewers: Most of you only reviewed once, but I'm still glad that you have. Even if you show up as "guest" you still have offered unwavering support.

Wow. That, my friends, took a while. So let's get on with the story!

I shook my head, attempting to dispel the thousands of images that had rushed through it seconds ago. The room appeared to be made of brown stone, and the gems in the walls sparkled with millions of colors. If I listened carefully, I could hear faint voices, whispering in the background. I attempted to stand, but realized I was weightless. I fought back the nausea of not being able to tell up from down. As far as I could tell, I had materialized inside the room. There were no entrances or exits save for a solid steel door above me.

"Where am I?" I asked, not expecting a response.

One of the gems, larger than the others and opposite to the door, projected an image of a being similar to Key-per.

"I am Mem-o, keeper of the _Palatium Iaculis_. The _Palatium Iaculis _is a repository of the memories of everyone who has existed, exists, and will exist. Being the third of the three dimensions of knowledge, which include the Citadel of Truth and XciapkilPoffkrebstela." Mem-o said something unintelligible, coughed for a second, and continued, "Which, of course, is not the true translation, as the true translation cannot be rendered into spoken or written language, only in the form of ideas. Your current location in the _Palatium Iaculis_ is class one, section Delta, subsection bz22q, and timeframe post-mushroom war era. Other information can be provided at the information desk." Mem-o finished, as a desk with a sign above it saying information appeared around him.

"Er. Yes. Can you pull up a map of the _Platinum Iaclis?_" I asked, wondering whether I could find Finn, Jake, and the Lich.

"Do you mean _Palatium Iaculis?_" Mem-o asked helpfully.

"Yes!" I replied, excitedly. Mem-o projected a map, which began with a simple red dot, then began expanding out from the dot. It continued expanding to show a subsection of rooms, labeled "Heroics" and then another section of rooms, labeled "Room topics E-X" and then another section labeled "Past" next to the relatively small section of "Present", followed by the seemingly infinite section "Future".

"As you can see, the _Palatium Iaculis_ rearranges itself to the timestream of the entering parties, organizing this clearly in past, present, and the always almost infinite future. When multiple parties are present, a duplicate of the _Palatium Iaculis _is simulated by bending space time that maintains this organization. Memories are stored in the many crystals you can see around you. Currently there are 7 people in the _Palatium Iaculis_ who match your time-stream. They will have been transported to a room matching their role in society, just as you were transported to a room containing heroics, as, you are, a hero."

"Do you know where my friends are?" I asked hopefully.

"Head two rooms that way and you will locate someone from your time stream. You must be similar, to have ended up so close together." Mem-o pointed to one wall, which morphed into a door, opening into a new room. I pushed off the wall, floating into the other room. I still was having trouble using the zero g. As the door swung closed behind me, Mem-o shouted.

"Oh yeah, and each room will provide 2-3 memories so it is easier to understand the theme of the room!" The door closed with an ominous thunk, and I felt a strange presence entering my head. It felt … benevolent, but also strangely intangible.

_Welcome to room bz22r. I am the Hero-subsection coordinator. _Hmm. I had heard that voice once before. Back when Jake was turned into magic man and we had to go to mars.

"Abraham Lincoln!" I exclaimed in realization.

_Good! The subsection coordinators are chosen from an individual who represents their kind. While you are in the Hero-subsection, I will attempt to help you, but in other sections the subsection coordinators will attempt to hinder you. I am now beginning the memory identification. However, after this one, you can choose to opt out of memory identifications, as they do tend to take a while. Do you understand?_

"Yes." I said confidently.

The memory sequence began.

_A one-eyed man in armor, wielding a short sword stood on a thin bridge, fighting alone against a huge army, a pile of defeated enemies before him. As the bridge collapsed, he jumped off, swimming to the other side._

_A woman in a strange machine, creating a loud noise as it soared across an immense ocean._

_A person, wearing a strange white suit with a glass faceplate, stepped off of a machine that looked like a huge bug, onto an immense gray, dusty landscape, with rocks strewn across. A distant sphere of green and blue, covered in clouds, floated on the horizon._

I returned to reality slightly shaken.

_This is the room of pre-mushroom war heroes. You should continue your journey, the one you are seeking has not moved. _Abraham Lincoln shook me out of my trance. I opened the door to the next room and floated in, not seeing anyone. I heard a surprised gasp from behind me. I turned, and saw, floating above the door, was a female fire elemental, wearing the traditional king armor.

"Who are you?" I asked. Whoever she was, she was very clearly not Finn or Jake.

"How?!" The other elemental asked in surprise, raising the visor of the armor. I gasped. She looked like me!

"You look just like me…" I said in astonishment.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"I'm Flame Princess. I'm a hero." I replied.

"I-I was Flame Princess too. But now I'm Flame Queen." Flame Queen replied.

"We must have come here from alternate dimensions." I replied. "We have to figure out what went differently.

"Well, I spent the first 14 years of my life trapped in a lamp in the Fire Kingdom, as I'm sure you know…"

"Wait, you were raised in the Fire Kingdom? I was raised by Joshua the Dog."

"What? Finn's dad? Wait, let me just get this straight."

About 30 minutes of explanation later, we each had a reasonable idea of each other's dimensions.

"Okay, so why are you here?" I asked.

"Me and Finn were chasing the Lich, and we went through this portal he had."

"Really? That happened to us too!" I replied. "Let's see whether we can find Finn. Or should I say, Finns. Mem-o, can you give us directions to both Finns?"

"Two doors to your right." We drifted weightlessly through the two rooms rather uneventfully. After opening the door to the second and drifting through, I spotted both Finns in the corner. They appeared to be floating, conversing. As one Finn's eyes turned towards us, I noticed the characteristic strand of blond hair extending from his hat and the gold sword I had given him. I pushed off towards him, knocking him backwards with the force of my hug. He hesitated for a second but returned the hug, and I felt warmth streaking through my body. Finn was OK! I knew that everything was all right, and it would turn out for the better. Finn was there. And in my euphoric joy, I leaned in and kissed him. It most certainly wasn't perfect. But for me, at that time, it was the best encouragement I could ever receive. After a few seconds, we separated, drifting away from each other, still holding on to Finn's hand. The other Finn and Flame Princess were staring at us with astonishment.

"What is it?" I asked, slightly disconcerted at their staring. The two of them blushed. They both mumbled a bit, until the other Finn finally spoke up.

"In our universe, we broke up a while back. I guess it brought back some memories." The awkward silence continued for a bit, until Flame Queen broke it.

"Is your elemental matrix unstable?" She asked curiously. "I mean, when me and other Finn did…well, that, I exploded and drove a hole to the center of the earth. I almost died."

"Joshua took care of that." I replied. "When diagnosed at an early age, elemental matrix decay is curable."

"Oh."

Yeah, yeah. Short chapter. I'm lazy. Sorry. I'll try to update again this weekend or on Monday, but I can't guarantee anything.

Goodbye!


	9. Joshua's Visit

For some reason Word froze up when I pressed Command-V, and I lost this document. No idea why. I'm rewriting it now, though.

Edit: Whoops, forgot to add the spotlight. Let's see:

Yeesh, I was really trawling through the reviews to find something, and had to go almost to the beginning. (Begin rant) C'mon guys! I can't spotlight your stories if you don't review! There's this little button down at the bottom of the page, with review on it. Considering over 2000 of you have read this but I only have 30 reviews, some from the same people, that means that at least 1970 of you aren't reviewing. You can do it! I read every review carefully. If I write a chapter and it only gets a couple of reviews, I often don't feel like writing another. Every review speeds up my writing process by just a little. (Rant over)

Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh, the spotlight:

GMansell's Tears of a Hero. You only reviewed once, and a while ago, but your story looks pretty good! Check it out!

The references to the heroes in the chapter last year were Horatius Cocles, a Roman soldier, Amelia Earhart, the famous pilot, and Neil Armstrong's moon landing.

To Ooobserver: Thanks for letting me reference your amazing fanfiction! Feel free to reference mine if you ever want to.

Riset36: Did I miswrite something and accidentally add in the Flame King? I didn't mean to include him…

"Guys, we have a problem." I said, breaking the silence. "If the Lich were to arrive, he would be transported to the most evil memories, correct?"

"Yeah?" My Finn asked.

"So we're going to have to go through those memories to stop him."

"We actually may have a greater problem than that." Flame Queen replied. "If we were both chasing the Lich, then wouldn't there be two Liches?"

We fell into silence, pondering this possibly fatal occurrence.

"We'll deal with that when we get there." Other Finn replied. "Mem-o, where is-"

Memo interrupted him. "Two new visitors have entered from your time stream."

"Where are they?" I asked, curious. "And from which dimension?"

"Further analysis indicates 42 rooms in this direction," He pointed and a door materialized in the wall. "13 rooms to the left, and one up. They are from your dimension." He pointed to me and my Finn. What? Did I just think that? Please disregard all previous uses of my Finn because….Oh, who am I kidding? You already know. At least Finn doesn't.

"C'mon! Let's go!" I grabbed my Finn's hand, floating down the corridors as the doors opened behind us. As we drifted along, I noticed the crystals changing color. In the hero room almost all of the crystals were pure gold, but as we traveled, some turned from gold to silver or to other colors.

"I think the color of the crystals represents something to do with the alignment of the room." I stated. As we continued drifting, the crystals began turning back to gold again.

"Wait! Stop." I recognized this room. This was where I had started. "Mem-o, I started here. Are we walking in circles?" The hologram flickered on.

"The Palatium Iaculis is constructed in four dimensions. Because of this, many rooms lead back on themselves or rearrange themselves after a time. This is because of the many time streams visitors-"

"Be quiet for a second." I asked, listening hard. I had just heard some sort of scraping noise from a wall. The scraping noise continued, and a door formed in the wall. We drew our swords, or, in the case of Flame Queen, materialized a sword out of fire, and pointed them towards the door. The door eased open, and a small, robotic insect came out. It carried a large, gold gem, which it carefully eased into a hole opened by the seemingly malleable stone around the walls. After the gem was secure, the stone reformed around the gem, encasing all of it save for the front surface in the brown rock.

"What was that?" I asked.

"That was a service robot. We use them to carry memories from the present to the past when time has passed along to the point at which they are no longer considered present."

"How does the stone do that?" My Finn examined the brown rock with wonder.

"The stone you speak of is actually the skeleton of a massive, living organism. Long, long ago, when the universe you inhabit was but a set of possible memories in our databanks, an immense war took place. The planet they were located on was a rare, sentient planet, and massive amounts of damage were inflicted to it. The planet, seeing it as its only chance of survival, cooperated with a group of refugees who relocated the planet's consciousness onto an asteroid. They hollowed out the asteroid into hundreds of rooms. However, a missile shot from the warring forces on the planet hit the asteroid as the refugees and the consciousness attempted to escape, causing it to experience a break in the time stream. Only a few refugees survived. The asteroid was transported to the space outside of dimensions, nearby the time room of Prismo. The refugees died off, and a group attempting to store all memories converted this to their massive storage area, which is how it still exists today."

I wasn't listening to Mem-o, however, I had noticed something far more interesting. Looking carefully at a memory crystal, I thought I noticed something I recognized: Dad appeared to be shown in the seeming reflections upon the crystal.

"Look at this." I said, reaching out to touch the crystal…

And a whirlwind of color pulled me through. I appeared to be in the same room of the _Palatium Iaculis_, but both Finns and the Flame Queen had disappeared. As I looked around, I saw a golden furred dog with a gray hat, examining some crystals.

"Dad!" I yelled, but he did not react. I tried to tap him on the shoulder, but my arm phased through him. I then realized I must have been transported into his memory.

"Hmm." Joshua said, examining a crystal without touching it. "Mem-o, can you organize transport for me from here to the future rooms?"

"Certainly, sir." Mem-o replied. What? Was Joshua Mem-o's boss or something?

A glowing door appeared, appearing similar to the doors normally occurring in the rooms, but without an image of the other side. Joshua stepped through, disappearing, and I was pulled along after him. I guess when you look at a memory, you have to remain with the person who's memory it is. We reappeared in a large observation deck. Below us, millions of vats of a strange, silvery liquid bubbled gently. This area did not appear to have any gems, but a large set of pipes ran from the vats through a door marked "Present."

"Mem-o, locate possible memory sequence 363B." A whooshing noise accompanied a small vial that flew along a set of tubes, popping out next to Joshua. Joshua took the vial, and, uncorking it, poured it into a shallow depression on a counter next to the glass windows. I walked up behind him, peering over his shoulder. A series of images were fading in and out on the surface of the liquid. I realized with a shock these were all images of me: Adventuring, talking, and even just sitting around. However, they all had one constant: At some point in the stream of possible memories, A boy would appear with his bear cap, and in most of them, I was somewhat embarrassed to admit, the stream ended up with us getting married. Even the idea was incredibly exciting for me, but I dampened my enthusiasm, reminding myself that any one of these could be a possible future, even the one where elephants took over the world and formed secret elephant societies with elephant cars and elephant planes.

"Who is the boy?" Joshua asked.

"Finn the Human. After analysis, there is a 97% likelihood that he will become a hero, as well as a 93% chance of him having a relationship with your daughter, and a 88% chance of him getting married to her. This data was calculated from a sample size of 10000 possible futures."

"And if I take the action I am considering?" Joshua asked.

"Chances increase to in excess of 99% for all three, due to the self-fulfilling prophecy effect."

"Very well. I will make sure to mention Finn in the message to Jake and Flame Princess."

"A piece of trivia that may interest you, sir: Finn the Human appears as your son in almost 80% of alternate universes."

"Hmm. Oh yes, have you extrapolated to the point at which you can predict where she is?"

"Yes. Directly to your left." Mem-o replied, pointing at me. I stepped back in shock.

"Hello, FP." Joshua said, looking at me. The memory then faded.

I reappeared in the room I had been.

"What do you want us to see, FP?"

"Huh? How long was I out?" I asked.

"You weren't out at all." My Finn replied, looking slightly confused.

"There was a memory. Finn…Joshua was here. He looked at memories of the future, that's how he knew about us." Finn's jaw dropped in astonishment. The silence was broken by the noise of the door behind us opening. We drew our weapons, ready to fight whatever had come after us.

"Aaugh! Clones!" Jake yelled, throwing his arms into the air as he entered the room we were in.

"Wait! Jake! It's OK, they're just from an alternate universe."

"FP! Evil Clone! Right next to you wearing some seriously creepy armor!"

"It's OK! They're from an alternate universe! They're after the Lich as well."

"Here, have some ice cream." Alternate universe Finn said, pulling some out of his pack and handing it to Jake.

"Well, ice cream isn't evil…" Jake replied, then immediately began eating the ice cream. "So good!"

"Haha. Jake's the same in any universe." Alternate universe Finn laughed.

"Okay, so let's get on with this. We still have to go like 12 more rooms forwards, 13 to the left and one up. So let's get going." We pushed off down the corridor, floating down, through the rooms. As we neared our target room, we began to hear more noises of people talking. Finally, we emerged into the room Mem-o had told us to go to.

"V-v-vampire!" Jake exclaimed, pointing to the black-haired, well, vampire floating next to Princess Bubblegum.

"Princess Bubblegum! What are you doing here? And who's that?"

"We came to help you. This is Marceline, the Vampire Queen." Jake fainted in shock.

"Sup y'all?" Marceline greeted us. "Are you like identical twins or something?"

"Oh! They're from an alternate universe. We found them, they were chasing after the Lich as well. I'm Flame Princess, and this is Finn, and this is alternate universe Flame Princess, now Flame Queen, and Finn. Oh yeah, and the fainted guy is Jake."

"Cool. Nice to meet you. So you two have been the ones crashing at my old house, huh? Did you see the M I carved there?" Marceline replied.

"Yep." I replied. "And I carved it out and put and FP there instead."

"Hah! You've got good spirit, Flame Princess. Keep the house. And make sure no weenies like this guy mess it up, ok?" Marceline hissed at Jake, laughing as he curled up into a ball, covering his eyes. "Anyway, I brought pasta. Anyone want some?" After some trouble setting up the portable stove in zero gravity, we asked Mem-o whether he could help us in any way. He replied that he could cause gravity in this room by spinning the asteroid, which worked surprisingly well. The water quickly boiled. I hadn't realized how hungry I was until Marceline had mentioned the pasta. I devoured it, and for a while we sat there, telling stories about our various adventures. As I became more tired, I leaned against my Finn. He put his arm around me. I sat there; feeling incredibly happy for a while, until I noticed other Flame Princess would look at us occasionally with sadness, and then look away. I stood up and walked over to her.

"We need to talk." I stated.

"What is it?" Other me asked.

"Come with me." I stood up, walking into the chamber next to ours. I shut the door behind me.

"What happened with you and Finn?" I asked curiously.

"I-I don't want to talk about it." Other me replied, placing her head between her hands.

"Listen, If you're going to keep on staring at me and my Finn like we've got two heads, I need to help you get over this. Remember, I'm you. It makes me feel bad if I see myself being hurt. So what happened?"

"It was an ordinary day. Finn and I had a date, but the Ice King kept on showing up. Finn pitted us against each other, writing personal things only he would know, attempting to get us to fight, all because of some stupid dream he had. It hurt me so much, I realized I could trust no one, even the one person I thought I could trust above all others."

Dang. This was going to be harder than I thought.

"So how do you feel now?" I asked, aware of how much like a psychologist I was sounding.

"I-I think I still like him. For some reason, even after all he did to me, I just…I can't get over him."

"So then you have two choices. You can either stop liking him, which will be hard, or you can forgive him and trust him again. FP, everyone makes mistakes. His mistake hurt you, but if we're talking about Finn, and I'm pretty sure we are, then he didn't realize he was going to hurt you at the time. You both are going through a lot of emotions right now and hormones and stuff, as am I, and that makes you far more prone to reaction. You have to find the part in you that thinks Finn's betrayed you, and ask yourself whether you still feel that because you still think Finn can't be trusted, or because a part of you, even the tiniest part, wants to avoid Finn because you want him to feel how you felt. Besides, right now you're going down the 'responsibility requires sacrifice' line, and I know as well as you do you don't want to become another Princess Bubblegum."

Other Flame Princess thought about what I had said for a bit, then nodded. "I'll think over that." But as she sat down next to alternate universe Finn, I knew she was back on the right track, even if she herself didn't.

And that's it for today! See you next update!

I've also edited the summary.


	10. I can't remember

I'm back guys! To my amazing reviewers, don't worry. I will continue this story.  
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these…oh wait, that's the US post office motto. Never mind. But have no fear, I will continue!

I awoke floating in midair. I guess Mem-o must have turned off the gravity or something, because it was happening to everyone else as well. In the zero-gravity everyone's arms had floated up in front of them, save for Finn, who somehow continued to have one arm around my shoulders even though he had flipped so that he was facing directly away from me while he was sleeping. I giggled a bit at his awkward position, then attempted to stand up. Of course, we were in zero-gravity, so I ended up careening around in a circle, flailing and waking everyone else up. I finally righted myself by grabbing on to a wall.

"Sorry guys." I said sheepishly, then let out an exclamation of surprise, as Finn, somehow still sleeping, managed to slam his head into the back of mine. We began preparing to leave; packing up all the stuff we had left floating around. I moved to the console and asked Mem-o where the Lich was.

"The Lich is located in the present memories section. Due to the hugeness of the past memories section, it will be more efficient if I create a door to it here."

"Great!" I replied. "You ready guys?"

"Yep!" Other me answered, slinging a backpack onto her shoulders.

"Okay, Mem-o, open the door!"

A door similar to the one Joshua had used formed out of the stone in front of us. I carefully edged it open, revealing an almost blinding bright light, and drifted through. I reappeared in another room, this one white and sterile. Looking around, I saw a series of pipes holding the liquid that I saw before in Joshua's memory feeding into a large number of molds. The liquid flowed into the mold and hardened into a memory gem, which was then removed by another spider-robot and carried out a door marked past. We were currently in what appeared to be another control room. A strange hat-type thing was suspended from the ceiling, with a chair underneath it. I attempted to drift over towards it, but, with a start, realized that there was gravity here and almost fell over. I took a few shaky steps towards it, then, adjusted to the gravity walked normally over to it.

"FP, I don't think you should touch that." Princess Bubblegum warned from behind me.

"It'll be all right." I replied. "Isn't it safe Mem-o?"

Mem-o replied from the console next to the chair. "It will not harm you physically."

"See?" I replied, still vaguely entranced by the strange hat. "Nothing will go wrong." I reached up and grabbed the hat, pulling it down towards me. "Nothing will go wrong." I said again, quieter, as I pulled the hat down those final couple centimeters until it fit squarely on my head. As the hat fully contacted my head, my vision went black, replaced with what appeared to be the treehouse. I attempted to walk towards it, but it appeared that I had no legs, or any corporeal for that matter, and merely instantaneously relocated to the spot I was thinking about going to.

"_Hmm." _I thought. _"So if I think about going to the Ice Kingdom…." _The view shifted, flying across Ooo until it reached the Ice Kingdom. _"I can see the Ice Kingdom."_ I played around with the viewer for a bit, then finally decided to use it for something useful. _"Show me the Lich." _I thought, and my view shifted once more, flying through space to the large, brown asteroid that was the _Palatium Iaculis_ and through the wall, past an image of my friends looking nervously at me, still in the chair, to the Lich, standing in the middle of the set of memories. He reached down, touching a gold gem, still hardening, that glinted images of a man helping an old woman across the street, turning it black, replacing the previous images with nightmares beasts and corpses. I gasped, shocked, and quickly returned to reality. I pulled off the strange hat and stood up.

"Flame Princess! You're OK!" Finn exclaimed.

"Yes! But we have very little time. We must find the Lich. He is corrupting memories or something, turning heroic memories into evil ones!" I gasped again, breathing heavily, still tired from using the strange viewer-thing.

"Let's go!" Both Finns said at once, jumping down a ladder into the rows of memories cooling. We followed them, running down towards the one I had spotted the Lich in. We rounded the corner, and sure enough the Lich was still there, turning to another memory, this one red.

"Hey Lich! Take this!" I yelled, throwing a fireball at him. He rose into the air, dodging it, then threw two back at me, which crashed into the floor, leaving a smoking hole. Alarms began to go off, and a number of robots began crawling over, attempting to repair the hole. I increased the temperature of my flames, shooting into the air like a rocket, and threw another fireball at the Lich. The area around me went black all of a sudden. I could feel the Lich's presence attempting to control me and possess me, and I fought back, remembering meeting Finn for the first time, him singing his song about me, holding my hand, and our hasty kiss after being reunited.

"Stay out of my mind!" I yelled, remembering all of my good times with Finn and Jake and my friends, bolstering my confidence to throw one massive fireball at the Lich. It impacted him, almost knocking him over. He rose again, laughing madly.

"Silly little girl, I don't need to be in your mind to have control over it. I have all of those good memories right here." He raised the red gem he had picked up when we came around the corner, and I gasped, seeing myself and Finn holding hands reflected on it. The Lich put one finger onto the gem, and it turned black. I felt a clawing pain in my chest, deep sadness and terror, pulling me down into the dark abyss. The Lich disappeared, and I was left alone, collapsed on the floor. The light of my flames illuminated an ever-shrinking patch of ground around where I sat, hugging my knees. I tried to continue remembering all of the good things me and Finn and my friends had done, but found myself losing them.

_There was a dog…Jack? Oh, now he's gone…_

_The princess of candy, I knew her! Or…at least I think I did. I can't remember._

_A vampire? I-I don't know._

I began repeating a mantra in my head.

_I am Flame Princess. I am 15 years old. I am a hero and I'm teaching my boyfriend Finn to be a hero as well. I live in a treehouse._

_I am Flame Princess. I am a teenager. I am a hero, and I have a boyfriend named Finn. I live in a… tree?_

_I am FP. I am a hero. I have a boyfriend named Finn. I used to live somewhere._

_I am FP. I am a hero. I have a boyfriend named Finn. I-never mind, I can't remember._

_I am FP. I don't remember what that stands for. I used to know someone named Finn. He was…more than a friend?_

_I am FP. I used to know someone named Finn._

_I am FP. I remember Finn._

_I remember Finn._

_I remember Finn._

_I remember…I can't remember._

I awoke sometime later. I was on fire, which was a bit unusual. Am I supposed to be on fire? I can't remember. I was in a big, black room. That made me laugh. That's a word. I still can remember some words. I can remember I used to be someone. I used to know more words. But now I know less. I don't remember! That made me laugh again. I don't remember! Haha! I don't know why it's so funny. You could say I don't remember! I don't remember! I'm running out of words now. Square, circle, box, blue, red, green, yellow… I don't remember. I don't remember the things that mean something. I don't remember what something means! I don't remember "means" either. I think…what's think? I don't remember. I made another one of those happy noises when I thought that. What is thought? I don't remember. It wasn't funny anymore though. Now it was…sad. What does sad mean? I don't remember. I had thought that so many times, I made a song.

"I don't remember, I don't remember, I can't remember because I don't remember."

Am I turning into the Ice King? Who's the Ice King? I laughed again. I think it had something to do with losing my sanity. I don't remember sanity. It can't be that important.

"I don't remember, I don't remember, I can't remember because I don't remember."

"What is remembering? I don't know because I can't remember!" I giggled again.

"_Flame Princess!"_

A voice called from far away. I don't remember a voice. That's new.

"Wake up!" The voice was closer. Wake up? I'm not asleep. At least, I don't remember being asleep. Was the voice talking to me? Am I Flame Princess?

"Are you talking to me?" I yelled back. Hmm. Yelling is new too.

"Er. Yes! Wake up!" The voice yelled back.

"Cool! How do I wake up?" I replied. Cool is new. I didn't remember cool from before.

"Er. I don't know! You should just know how to wake up!" The voice replied.

"Well, I don't remember anything. So that could be a problem." Problems are new too. I haven't heard of a problem before.

"Try opening her eyes." Another voice suggested, quieter. I think the new voice was talking to the old one. Suddenly, the black sky cracked open, revealing an immense face. It-no, he was wearing a big, white, hat. Hats were new too.

"Um. Do you remember me, Finn?" The big face called back.

"Nope!" I replied cheerfully, smiling and waving at the big head. "Although I wish I did. Do you want to hang out sometime?" Hey, you can't criticize me. This Finn-head-thing was cute.

"Oh. Um. We-uh, normally do that, when your memories were fixed."

"My memories are broken?" Come to think of it, that might be the problem. I don't think I have enough of them.

Other voice interjected again. "Here's the memory powder."

"Ok. I'm going to look away, but I'll be in there with you in just a second." Big floating Finn head replied. There were a few noises as his head disappeared, then he appeared next to me. I stumbled back at his sudden appearance.

"It worked!" Finn exclaimed. I looked at his blue clothes. I remembered them from somewhere. It was quite puzzling.

I walked over to him, examining the things on his feet. "What are these?" I asked.

"Um. Shoes." He replied, standing there somewhat awkwardly.

"And these?" I asked, pointing to the protrusions from his white hat.

"My ears." Finn replied. This continued on for a bit until I roughly understood most of the meaning of the words.

"Listen, FP, you need to wake up." Finn said.

"I know! It sounds awesome up there, but I can't figure out how." I replied. "It's so far away."

"Listen, FP, is there anything you can remember?"

"Not remembering? I remember that."

"You need to remember." Finn grabbed my hand. Yay! That's good, I think.

"I-I think I remember you. We were in a room, and we were doing something, because we had been lost and I was happy I found you." I tried to remember. That was the strongest memory I had.

"You kissed me, remember?" Finn said again.

"Yes, I think I do." I said vacantly.

"Remember me, and Jake, and all the others?"

"Yes…" I whispered. It was all coming back! I was starting to remember! Me and Finn leaned towards each other, drawn together as the black landscape around me slowly began gaining color. Just before our lips met, I whispered two of the three words that had plagued me.

"I remember…"

Woo! And chapter 10 with 40 review already! Thanks so much guys!


	11. The Battle of the Mist

Hey! I'm so sorry I missed last update, I had a hectic weekend and didn't have much time. Anyway, I have to answer a few questions before we get started.

The Hidden Flare: I envisioned FP as wearing something similar to what she wore in "Vault of Bones." Finn looks exactly like Finn except he has a strand of blond hair coming out from under his hat because of the crown.

Ooobserver: I'm glad you liked the memory loss sequence! I just realized how similar it is to yours, sorry!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I just love Adventure Time.

And so it begins!

I awoke to see a panorama of flashing lights and sounds. Finn, Jake, and Princess Bubblegum stood next to me, with alternate universe Finn and me as well as Marceline behind them. I sat up rapidly, overwhelmed by the cacophony of sounds that besieged my ears. There were alarms, a whooshing sound, and explosions in the background.

"What's happening?" I screamed over the noise.

A hologram of Memo appeared. I caught a few words of what he was saying.

"Lich-temporal field-_Iaculis_ is crashing-falling-vacuum shields decayed-evacuate…" A slash of static moved through the hologram, and it froze, then disappeared. Princess Bubblegum was looking at some sort of scanner.

"The _Iaculis's _shell has been punctured in some areas and it's no longer stable! If this continues, we'll fall out of the multiverse and into the void!"

I didn't know what she meant by void, but it didn't sound good. A shrieking noise came from the floor a few meters away from us as a section of it broke off, falling away into the starry space. The air began whooshing out of the hole, sucking two of the worker robots with it.

"We have to find the Lich!" I yelled, jetting into the air on a tail of flame, following the trail of destruction the undead creature had left behind. We sped around a corner, when an explosion shook the _Palatium_, leaving us all floating in midair.

"The gravity is down!" Princess Bubblegum yelled. We continued down the hallway. Halfway to the end, a cracking noise shook the _Palatium_ as a section of the stone wall flew away, sucking us backwards. Finn lost his grip, flying down past me, but I grabbed his hand just as he was about to fly out the hole. I could feel my grip slipping as I struggled to prevent the both of us from flying out into the vacuum. Jake, alternate universe me and Finn, Princess Bubblegum and Marceline reached the door at the end of the hallway. They opened the door, Jake stretching an arm back towards us. I lost my grip on the rock and began jetting forwards, using my flames to propel me. I could barely hold my ground, however, and I quickly was losing energy and air. My vision contracted, black spots forming, and the cacophony of noises was drowned out by the rushing sound of the blood in my head. As my vision constricted even further, I reached out, feeling Jake's arm stretch around me and Finn, pulling us to safety. We flew through the door, which shut behind us, sealing us off from the vacuum and dampening the sound to a few thumps as explosions wracked the rest of the damaged asteroid. Marceline looked through the other door into the next room.

"It's destroyed." She said somberly. Sure enough, the next hallway had a massive gash torn down its length, opening it up to the cold of space. I accessed a hologram of the asteroid at the console next to the door. Massive floating pieces of rock from the shell of the asteroid were slowly drifting off, leaving exposed sections of hallway.

A voice came over the speakers:

"Fools. You never understood the scope of my true plan. First it was "Oh no, the Lich is running from you two puny mortals!" Like I would ever do such a thing. Then it was, "Oh no, the Lich has your memories!" Merely a distraction. Now the heroes of not one but two dimensions are out of the way, leaving them ripe for the taking. But my true plan was never just for one dimension, no. I will destroy the _Palatium Iaculis_, causing all to lose their memories and submit to the chaos of Evil, allowing me to take over the whole multiverse and revenge myself for the crimes it inflicted on me. You don't understand that in every universe I exist in, I am subjected to pain and suffering. Born of a radioactive puddle, I now will turn the multiverse into what created me! Did you wonder why the _Palatium _only registered seven people? Let's count: There's the two hero-boys, the two flaming girls, the pink scientist, the dog, and the vampire. I am not even recognized as a person! But none of those justifications really matter. I do not need them, for I am evil manifest, centered in an undead core, created for only one purpose, to destroy!" The speaker cut off with a crackly noise.

We stood there in shock for a bit.

"Okay." Princess Bubblegum broke the silence. "We need to seal the _Palatium_ and kill the Lich. Any ideas?"

"Maybe if I stretched to cover all the holes?" Jake asked.

"No, it's too big, and you'd depressurize and die. We need some sort of sealant." Princess Bubblegum replied. "And then maybe if we found some water I could use my electrolaser on it and turn it into oxygen and hydrogen…"

"If I could get some hydrogen, me and other me over here could use it to rejuvenate our flames and distract the Lich." I said.

"So all we need is water, but we don't have any. Where's the Ice King when you need him?" Marceline said.

"I think I have a solution." My Finn removed his Crown from his backpack.

"Where did you get that?" Other Finn asked in surprise.

"It's a long story." Finn smiled wryly.

"But you'll go insane again!" I protested. Why did he have to have that crown? Why couldn't it have been someone else to do it? "Let me do it!"

"No, FP." Finn replied. "I'm the only one who might be able to control it. Besides, we need you to distract the Lich."

I leaned forwards, brushing my lips against his. I stepped back. "Be safe."

Finn nodded, a determined expression set on his face. He turned towards the door. I watched as other me and other Finn hugged, probably for a little longer than was appropriate as friends. At least something good had come out of this. Jake stood next to me, his normally joking expression set in a determined frown. Behind him, Marceline and Princess Bubblegum hugged. I wonder…nah, that's not like PB…but still, maybe.

I turned away from my friends as Finn stepped towards the door, sliding the long securing bolt down into the ground. As the bolt slid away, the door opened, and air began rushing out. Finn steadily placed the crown on his head, his eyes turning white and his blond air overflowing out of his hat. He raised his arms, sending a stream of ice covering the breach. We then ran through the hall into the next room. After sealing the next breach, Finn grimaced. I laced my fingers into his.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Yes." Finn replied. "The crown is resisting me."

We continued to the next breach, hands still entwined. With every passing minute, the expression on Finn's face became more and more strained, his breathing more and more ragged. Finally, we came to the control room of the _Palatium._ I reached forwards, opening the door. Inside, the Lich stood, shooting fire throughout. As I watched, he blasted open the large window in the front of the room, drifting outside of the asteroid. We followed him out, standing on the surface of the asteroid, held by the faint remaining gravity, breathing the air leaking from the _Palatium._

"Ready?" I said. The Lich remained turned away from us, focusing on smashing the _Iaculis_ further.

"Ready." Finn replied.

I jetted into the air, releasing Finn's hand. "LICH!"

The Lich turned towards me as I threw a fireball at him. He was knocked over backwards, falling to the ground. Next to me Jake, other Finn, and Marceline stood and floated respectively, while behind us my Finn began freezing the breaches while other me melted some of the ice and Princess Bubblegum turned the water into air with a strange lightning device.

The Lich turned, speeding towards me and sending a wave of green fire, which I blocked. Jake swung a floating piece of the asteroid forwards, clipping the Lich's leg and knocking off a few bones, which began to regrow. Marceline turned into her demon form as other Finn jumped onto the Lich's head, slicing through one horn with his demon blood sword. I leapt forwards, one hand blazing, the other carrying my sword, but was knocked aside by dark wraith-like cloud, leaving me feeling weakened and cold. An dark cloud rose behind him, with occasional faces and sounds appearing in it, formed out of the inky darkness.

"He's using evil memories to assist him!" Jake yelled, wincing as a dark memory flew through his body, causing him to become pale. The Lich then shot a blast of fire at him, which was blocked by an increasingly harried looking Finn, who shot a blast of ice at it at the last moment. Another memory flew through me, causing me to fall to the surface of the asteroid. Other Finn was being driven back by the shadows, as Marceline succumbed to the massive shadow-beasts attacking her. I stood, but fell down again as another shadow swooped through me. I watched as other Finn fell and collapsed to the ground, more shadows swooping over him. Other me turned to face the shadows, but was knocked over by a blast of fire from the Lich. Princess Bubblegum fired her lightning device into the dark clouds, evaporating a few memories, but was soon taken from behind by yet another. My Finn stood last, shooting bolts of lightning into the crowd. For an instant, it looked like he might win, as the shadows drew back and he sliced through them with his golden sword. But he winced again, grabbing his head, and fell to the ground as the crown fought him once more. The shadows flew in then, like birds of prey, sweeping down and through his body, now lying on the asteroid's surface. I watched as the shadows advanced down the narrow section of the surface we were on, splitting down the center to allow the Lich through. The Lich walked steadily down the aisle the shadows had made for him, walking towards the unconscious bodies of my friends, green fire blazing on both hands. It was too late. We were done for. There was no one left to resist the Lich.

_No._

I looked around. The calming voice appeared to have come from nowhere.

_Those are the dark memories talking. There still is hope! Stand and save your friends._

No, we were done. There was nothing left.

_STAND, FLAME PRINCESS. AS A HERO IT IS YOUR DUTY. STAND AND FIGHT!_

I slowly pulled myself to my feet, rising and raising my sword. I analyzed the situation. We were on the spine of the asteroid currently, and the area was only a meter or two wide at the thinnest point. I took up a position there, blocking the advancing shadows from reaching my friend. As I raised my sword, a sudden burst of energy flowed through me. The first shadow flew towards me, hissing. I sliced through it, evaporating it into a cold mist. Another came. This one I threw a fireball through, causing it to dissipate. As the shadows destroyed, I felt reenergized, even though they came at me at a greater frequency. As I sliced through the Lich's minions, I became aware of several presences by my side. The one eyed soldier I had seen in the memories guarding the bridge appeared next to me, made of pure white vapor. A set of dark memories in the air above me disappeared as the woman in the strange flying machine I saw before flew through them, again seemingly made of white vapor. The man in the suit I saw before planted a flag, sending out a cloud of white vapor that evaporated the black mist around them. Abraham Lincoln pounded a gavel on the dark memories heads. White-misted soldiers shot, cut, and punched their way through the dark clouds. One man merely gave a speech, something about a dream, causing all the dark memories around him to recoil and evaporate and the white vaporous memories to strengthen and fight harder. One man helped an old lady through the crowds of darkness, causing the clouds around them to dissipate. I saw people I recognized as well, other versions of Finn and me, Billy the Hero, the person who looked like the Ice King, the green-skinned girl with the tiger. Doctors and writers and philosophers strode through the crowds of darkness, pushing them back. The dark clouds retreated, leaving the Lich standing alone. The white, vaporous clouds dissipated as well.

_Remember, there will always be a hero where there is strife._ Abraham Lincoln's voice boomed out at the clouds disappeared, leaving us and the Lich.

"You may have destroyed my army, but I still remain!" The Lich yelled. "I can still kill you all!" He floated into the space above the _Palatium._

"Not now." Mem-o said, appearing in hologram form again. "Activating primary engines." The Palatium shuddered as we clung to the surface of the asteroid, Jake wrapping his arms around us, holding us to the surface. The Palatium shot away, as the Lich faded to a distant speck, then disappeared altogether.

And that's it for this chapter! The next chapter is the epilogue, but there will be a sequel. Don't worry, there's far too much left unresolved.


	12. Terminae

Hey! Another weekend update for you guys, as usual. Before anything else, let's start!

Prismo gazed at the viewscreen, depicting the unconscious heroes. The Lich had been vanquished, but evil would always rise again. Prismo knew this better than most; in many parallel universes with minor differences the band of heroes would fail in stopping the Lich, leaving him to destroy the universe. The story wasn't over for them yet, however. He watched as the Flame Princess awakened, looking around. Prismo sighed as the girl noted the absence of the boy and the crown, looking shocked, and moving to awaken the dog and the others. He watched as the group frantically searched the _Iaculis,_ finding nothing. He watched as the girl questioned Mem-o, who responded with a melancholy shake of his head, then opening an exit portal. The first two to leave were the pair from the other dimension, holding hands, and offering condolences to the fiery princess, whose flames were becoming more and more dull. He watched as the bubblegum girl and the Vampire Queen exited, leaving the girl and the dog. They both sat there for a few minutes, followed by the dog standing and exiting, leaving the girl to remain there, thinking. Tears ran down her face, leaving burnt tracks on the floor where they fell. Finally she stood, walking down through the halls of the _Iaculis_, past the partially healed breaches and repair robots working frantically. She walked, and walked, and Prismo watched and watched. Finally, after the longest time, Prismo shut the screen off. If he was all-powerful, why could he only affect things through the wishes of others? He was restricted to being a watcher, a waiter, a conduit for the desires of others. Heck, he wasn't even able to leave this room! He was just stuck here, watching and waiting for all eternity. He had seen countless disasters, millions of deaths. Some wishes were for a better future, some for a worse one. The past one, well, it had been rather ambivalent. He could see what the future could look like from this point on. The fiery girl would become the new hero of Ooo, much as Finn had been in the first universe, before that first wish that had set off this timeline. He could see it now, she would bring a new era of prosperity and peace, with difficulties that were overcome, where evil hid from the light of her flames. She would claim the throne of the fire kingdom, as she had did in the first universe, and lead it into a bright future of truth and light and finally, at an age of 47, leading the conversion of the fire kingdom to the first fire republic, an institution that would attract many fire-immune species to join it, leading to a new era of industry and freedom that many citizens of the fire kingdom had never experienced. He could see that the thoughts of Finn gnawed occasionally at her thoughts, but were replaced by thoughts of duty and responsibility. Finally retiring from her official position as government and hero at 59, she continued to guide the fire kingdom, continuing the era of prosperity. Evil remained, but only in the shadows, hiding. He watched as she aged, never finding another to replace Finn. Finally, she died peacefully in her sleep, at 95, one of the longest lived fire elementals ever, which was especially astonishing because the more powerful the elemental generally mean less long of a lifespan. Prismo sat back, contented that at the very least, it ended well, turning the monitor off. Or did it? A sensation of unease came across him, and he turned the monitor on a second time. Looking at the next few centuries, he watched as the band of heroes who originally had defeated the Lich were eliminated one by one, seemingly through natural causes. An anti-candy serum mistakenly spilled in the laboratory, garlic accidentally added to a basket of strawberries. The dog was arrested on a trumped-up charge of bike theft from decades ago and died while in jail. Kingdoms fell into disrepair, and many areas became more and more dangerous. Major trade routes dried up, and people fled for the safety of the kingdoms. For a time, the fire republic stemmed the fall into darkness, sending its army to guard many surrounding kingdoms. This culminated in the battle of the tree house. The tree house had become a memorial after the death of the Flame Princess, where soldiers of the fire army were traditionally inducted. In the presidency of Ignacio III, an army of monsters, some escaped nightosphere demons, and bandits formed a coalition, stopping their low level plans of raiding travelers and attempting to destroy the tree house, a symbol of good and righteousness. The combined Fire and Candy Kingdom armies met there, under command of Peppermint King and General Pyris, the brother of the now deceased Flame Princess, assisted by the Hyooman coalition, lead by the daughter of Susan Strong. The battle went well at first, but enemy reinforcements arrived and the battle line broke, first among the banana guards but rapidly spreading to the hyoomans, unused to the outside surface as they were. Peppermint King and General Pyris regrouped inside the tree house, where the highly disciplined fire kingdom soldiers and Gumball guardians remained. After a long siege, evil necromancers succeeded in raising an undead dragon. The dragon quickly destroyed the Gumball guardians, then turned its attention on the tree house, while undead armies marched below with the brigands and the demons. Peppermint King cast a spell, using his life energy and the many "favors" owed to him by the more powerful beings in Ooo, destroying the dragon from the inside out. The undead began to overrun the remaining Fire Kingdom troops, although resistance was strong. Finally, four were left, General Pyris, an alchemist, and two guards. The guards rapidly fell, leaving just Pyris and the alchemist, who rapidly was consumed fighting a demon. Pyris, seeing the battle was lost, kneeled, sending a message mentally back to the fire kingdom, warning of the defeat. As he was struck down, and as the flames were cast on the treehouse, leaving it burning, a green spirit rose from the ruins, obliterating a huge area with a magical explosion. This marked the last time the Fire kingdom guards attempted to bring peace, contenting themselves to holding their ever-decreasing in size republic as kingdoms fell around them. Finally, they fell too, leaving Ooo in the holds of chaos and death.

Prismo reared back in shock. He thought good had won! The Lich had been defeated! But in reality it only postponed the fall leaving this for later. He wished he could do something. But what? He remembered the last thing the Cosmic Owl said before he left after the last game night:

"Everyone who is in the time room gets a wish."

He had thought it was a strange thing to say, but now, now it might be worth a try.

"I wish…"

And as he completed the sentence, he knew it had worked.

Author's Note: Wow! This has been an amazing time guys, and I'm sooo sad to see it end. But I think it's natural or otherwise I'll end up rambling.

The key to writing adventure time, I think, is writing it like a role playing game, asking, what would I do? And if you think of a modification, even if you're midway through writing something, change it. Don't take too long on plans. Plans are good, but the true essence of writing stems from the heart.

By the way, look for the sequel to this story, "Forks in the Road", which I'll be posting probably before Tuesday or Wednesday.

I haven't met all my goals with this story, for example I wanted enough review to reach the front page filtering for Finn and Flame Princess most reviews first. I also wanted to be reviewed by SCIK at one point, but no, I don't really know why I haven't. But there have been many things I achieved, which I have been happy about. I did manage to make it to the third or fourth on page two filtering for Finn and Flame Princess sorted by reviews. And I've had many amazing reviewers, like Ooobserver and Riset36, who have stuck with me as I've taken you all on this journey. And with people as supportive as you, it doesn't really matter whether I've succeeded with my goals or not. Because our journey is complete, my friends, but it's never really over. As long as you keep on writing, reading, and reviewing, the journey is never over. It's only just begun.


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